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If CCD and conversion rate aren’t just another barely comprehensible marketing terms for you, you’ll find this post very useful. Below I’m going to share the basic rules of Conversion Centered Design every web marketologist and designer should know. CCD isn’t just about cluttering your websites with huge, neon-colored arrows, but it’s about making your visitors want to use your product. So... how optimized is your landing page? How to hone your CCD skills and how to make your conversion rate skyrocket? The answers are below.

Conversion Centered Design in Brief

The main target of CCD is to create a website giving user experiences that will guide your visitors toward completing a specific action (clicking, registering, sharing personal data, taking a quiz, following, etc.) which is a crucial constituent of your business goal. For this purpose certain psychological triggers and persuasive design elements are used. Everything in CCD is about conversion. So, let’s dive into the world of Conversion Centered Design to find out the most killer elements that do convert.

#1 Color Palette

The very first thing your visitors notice about your website is colors and contrasts. The best way to highlight your call-to-action message is to display it in a different color. The optimal contrast is viewed in monochrome designs. But if you find those boring, you can use any element of the color spectrum that will reflect your Company style. Bear in mind that many colors are associated with different emotions (red - with danger, heat and something negative; green - something positive, organic, etc.).

#2 Try it For Free Hint

Everyone likes freebies. And if there is a free version of your product (a trial, for instance) - you’re bound to furnish this information on your landing page. Nothing is more persuasive than a chance to try something at no cost. Try it for free right now!

#3 White Space

There must be always blank space at your landing page. Cluttered, motley pages overwhelm your visitors with information and distract from their main target - improving your conversion rate :). Blank space isn’t an empty space - it’s an area of great importance that surrounds and highlights that one button.

#4 Attractive People

Imagery is the keystone of a highly optimized landing page. It creates strong associations by evoking emotions. So, go and add a photo of a beautiful woman or a smiling baby to your landing page. Of course, I’m exaggerating a bit. All I want to say is that you must be very careful when picking images for your website design. They must be aesthetically satisfying and pleasing to the eye.

#5 Arrows

Arrows and other directional cues are another way to draw your customers’ attention to a desired area. You could be forgiven for using one or two elegantly designed arrows, since they do work. But it shouldn’t be your single weapon in your CCD arsenal :).

#6 Urgency Factor

This is my favorite :). Buy now! Only 7 days left! What not to love about it? This is probably the most surefire technique in CCD.
About the Author:
Nir Barlev is the product manager at Webydo, an online platform that allows designers to create professional websites, with built-in CMS, without writing code.
]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/basics-conversion-centered-landing-page-design/feed/0The pitfalls of responsive designhttp://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/pitfalls-responsive-design/
http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/pitfalls-responsive-design/#commentsTue, 19 Mar 2013 07:08:10 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=4419
There were many new exciting developments last year in the web design world, with one of the main players being responsive design. And it’s no wonder really – In a world were mobile browsing is on the rise and most of us own or have access to a smart phone or tablet, something as [...]
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There were many new exciting developments last year in the web design world, with one of the main players being responsive design. And it’s no wonder really – In a world were mobile browsing is on the rise and most of us own or have access to a smart phone or tablet, something as flexible and as ground breaking as responsive design was always going to be a huge success. It takes the hassle out of web design (essentially, I mean that’s the point right?) in that we can design one website, and it’ll work across multiple platforms, shapes and sizes – no matter what we’re browsing on. Whether that be a phone, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop computer.
The thing is though, it’s not all that great – and whilst I keep hearing about the benefits of this technique, no one seems to be talking about the negatives. And believe me, I’ve found a few that have tripped me up at times. So here they are – laid out for all to see. Five pitfalls that responsive design throws up – and how you can deal with them when the time comes.
1. It uses up CPU and memory
The idea of responsive design is that each individual devices resizes you website to fit its screen and size. This is all very well and good in theory – but think about how many images you have on your site, and think about your poor consumer and their memory and CPU as their devices not only downloads the original image, but then translates it, resizes it and formats it into the size it needs. This is something that takes up both CPU and memory, and it’s something (unfortunately) you can’t easily get around. Whilst many people may not notice this when browsing, for those who do – it’s a surefire way to loose visitors. After all, for people on mobile contracts who have limited data, you can’t go round eating it all up every time they decide to visit your website.
2. Media Queries are the bane of my life
Media Queries are the things that do the translation for responsive resign, and they are found in the browser your user is using to access your site from whatever tablet they’re prone to. Well, that’s all very well and good – but tell me, what do you do when they’re using a browser so old that media queries aren’t in fact present? Well, you can’t do anything. The thing is, some older browsers that haven’t been update in a while – don’t have these media queries – which means your website goes from being a super flexible design, to being annoying inflexible and unreadable.
3. Sometimes it just doesn’t cooperate
No matter how hard you try with new technology like this, there are always going to be devices that don’t cooperate with you design, especially when you’ve chosen to opt for responsive. The technology industry is evolving so fast too, that new tablets and phones are popping up almost weekly on the market. This makes it hard to keep up – and this can lead to unsuccessful translation in some devices. No matter how hard you try to make it work!
4. Need for Speed
Because of all the variety in responsive design, you never know if someone is going to look at the site from a mobile or from a desktop. And here throws up another difficulty with the whole idea. Mobile speed and desktop speed are very different, and quite often it’s the speed of the connection that effects just how much someone enjoys the browsing experience. Browsing a responsive website on a mobile phone might be completely successful and super fast – but that might only be because of how great their 3G connection is. What is their Internet connection is terrible? Well, then they’re going to experience a very long wait potentially, waiting for the site to load. The frustrating thing is, you can’t really have control of this either – as it’s usually down to the provided of the Wi-Fi or 3G. It’s always worth making sure you’re with a good hosting provider too on this note too – as every little helps. Do your research and find one with good reviews regarding responsive design, or mobile browsing.
5. It takes so much longer
It’s no secret that newer technology like this, takes longer to master and therefore the projects can often take longer to complete too. Some clients may get frustrated waiting longer for responsive design – so make sure you’re cleared it with them before you go ahead with it. Ensure they understand the time constraints and ensure you give them a realistic expectation to work with. Responsive design requires more code, which takes a lot longer to write and edit than a standard site– and in order for the design to be fast and smooth – you’ll need this extra code in the template.
]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/pitfalls-responsive-design/feed/0Designer Booster in the Top 100 Blogs!http://www.designerbooster.com/featured/designer-booster-top-100-blogs/
http://www.designerbooster.com/featured/designer-booster-top-100-blogs/#commentsSat, 19 Jan 2013 14:12:58 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=4410
Designerbooster.com was chosen as one of the Top 100 design blogs to follow for 2013! An infographic by the team at CouponAudit Like this post? Share It :Related posts: Top Design Blogs Compared Designer Spotlight: Interview With Web and Graphic Designer Veerle Pieters If Design Blogs Were Hollywood Celebrities – Who Would They [...]
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Designerbooster.com was chosen as one of the Top 100 design blogs to follow for 2013!
An infographic by the team at CouponAudit
]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/featured/designer-booster-top-100-blogs/feed/0To Use or Not to Use a CMShttp://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/cms/
http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/cms/#commentsFri, 23 Mar 2012 20:37:24 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=4199
As web designers, we all are aware of the importance of CMSs. Simply put, a CMS helps in managing the website in an efficient manner. If you are running a photo gallery, a blog, a news site or any similar website that requires constant updates, nothing beats the ease which a CMS such as WordPress [...]
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As web designers, we all are aware of the importance of CMSs. Simply put, a CMS helps in managing the website in an efficient manner. If you are running a photo gallery, a blog, a news site or any similar website that requires constant updates, nothing beats the ease which a CMS such as WordPress or Drupal can offer you!
Therefore, modern day CMSs have made the otherwise-mundane task of running a website very simple. To quote from Typo3:

“If you can use a computer, you can manage the content for your website.”

However, oftentimes, in our bid to employ CMSs for website management, chances are that we might end up over-doing the use of CMSs. In this article, we discuss when to use, and when not to use a CMS.

When Should You Use a CMS?

To begin with, if you are running a blog or a gallery, don’t bother reading any further. You NEED a CMS, period. Similarly, if your website needs to be updated regularly and/or is run by a group of users, a CMS might suit your purpose.
Using a CMS also ensures that you save your time (and eventually, efforts). You no longer need to hard-code your website in HTML or CSS – the CMS takes care of everything. Just install it, and you are presented with a neat administration panel that lets you tweak, modify and run your website in the manner you deem fit. Furthermore, with the availability of numerous themes, templates as well as plugins/extensions, a CMS can be made to accomplish virtually any task when it comes to web design.
Using a CMS for clients also makes sense – not all of us are gifted with tech-savvy clients all the time, and more often than not, most clients will have a hard time figuring their way out with hard-coded sites sans CMS.
CMSs also offer excellent editorial control over your content, and better user management for your website.
Lastly, many CMSs provide SEO out-of-the-box. Of course, you can always ensure that your hand-crafted HTML pages conform to SEO norms and beat even the most search-engine friendly CMS out there! However, CMSs again save time in this aspect – you do not need to worry much about SEO. At the most, you’ll just have to tweak a few settings initially.

When Shouldn’t You Use a CMS?

or

When Should You Hard-Code Your Website?

Generally, manually designing your website’s pages should be considered as an option for static websites with few pages that are rarely updated. You can add personality to your website, and you are limited only by your creativity — in other words, you need not be bound by a CMS.
When you decide to write extensive code for your website, you can pay attention to every minute detail – a blessing for small websites (and a curse for larger ones, pun unintended). Since you are no longer restricted by platform-specific limitations, you can design and craft individual components of the website manually.
Another point to consider should be security. Most CMSs release new updates/fixes/patches on a regular basis; however, on a generalized level, a CMS invites more hackers than a hard-coded website.
Most importantly, hard-coding your website, though time-consuming initially, also brings down the time and efforts required in maintenance of the website in the long run – there are no CMSs to update or plugins to uninstall. You design your pages, you publish them, and you drink coffee!

So, the Verdict is…

Well, to be honest, the answer to this question is simple – it depends on your needs!
As stated above, if your website has dynamic content, a CMS will be mandatory in most cases. If, however, you’re running a site with mostly static pages that are not updated very frequently, you can definitely consider coding the website yourself and thereby saving the recurring efforts required in running a CMS.
You The Designer]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/cms/feed/0Responsive Web Designhttp://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/responsive-web-design/
http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/responsive-web-design/#commentsFri, 23 Mar 2012 08:37:01 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=4142
This is a different take on Responsive Web design. This article discusses how we can better embrace what the Web is about by ignoring the big elephant in the room; that is, how we can rely on media queries and breakpoints without any concern for devices. The Challenge Let’s start our journey by looking at [...]
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This is a different take on Responsive Web design. This article discusses how we can better embrace what the Web is about by ignoring the big elephant in the room; that is, how we can rely on media queries and breakpoints without any concern for devices.

The Challenge

Those pages let people check websites through a set of pre-built views based on various device sizes or orientations. Bricss goes one step further as it allows you to "customize" viewports by setting any dimensions you want.
Now check the-great-tablet-flood of 2011.
Do you get my drift? Trying to check layouts against specific sets of dimensions is a losing battle. Besides, using existing devices to set break-points is not what I’d call a "future proof" approach, as there is no for standard sizes or ratios.
I don’t want to go the "consider it to be harmful" route, but I want to point out that tools like these, or articles promoting a device approach (i.e. Device Diagram for Responsive Design Planning), make people focus on the wrong end of the problem, reinforcing the idea that responsive is all about devices.
To me, it seems more realistic to check our layouts through viewports of arbitrary dimensions and shapes. We don’t need anything fancy, we can simply drag the bottom right corner of our favorite desktop browser to enter: “Device Agnostic Mode”.

The Goal

The goal is to surface content, to style boxes as columns so they bring sections above the fold. The question is: when should we bring a box "up"?

Content Is King!

If we consider that content is king, then it makes sense to look at it as the corner stone of the solution. In other words, we should set break-points according to content instead of devices.

The Principle

The content of a box dictates its width. It is the minimum width of adjacent containers that create break points (a size at which we can display boxes next to each other).
Decisions are made keeping these points in mind:

The width of a box should be as small or as wide as possible without impairing readability.

The max-width of a box should take into consideration the importance of following boxes. This is because the wider the box, the wider the viewport must be to reveal subsequent boxes.

The goal is not to bring everything above the fold (we don’t want to fill the viewport with clutter).

CSS

To build our grid we will rely on display:inline-block mainly for horizontal alignment and inline flow. But note that this choice also gives us an extra edge to play with (more on this later).
Also note that we will override this styling with float to achieve some specific layouts.

The minimum and maximum widths above only come into play when the box is displayed as a column.

Breakpoints

The width of the containers establishes our breakpoints. Breakpoints are viewport's widths at which we decide to display a box as a column (instead of a row).

How Do We "Pick" Breakpoints?

Until we are able to use something like grid layout, we are pretty much stuck with the HTML flow, and thus should rearrange boxes while respecting their source order. So we go down our list, and based on the minimum width values, we create various combinations. The values below show widths at which we rearrange the layout, styling rows as columns, or changing the width of a specific column.

470px

header

Main

Complementary

Aside (250) + Contentinfo (220)

530px

header

Main

Complementary (280) + Aside (250)

Contentinfo

700px

header

Main (420) + Complementary (280)

Aside

Contentinfo

or:

header

Main (420) + Complementary (280)

Aside + Contentinfo

950px

Main (420) + Complementary (280) + Aside (250)

Contentinfo

1170px

Main (420) + Complementary (280) + Aside (250) + Contentinfo (220)

1190px

Main (420) + Complementary (280) + Aside (490)

Contentinfo

1410px

All of the above are potential breakpoints — each value could be used to create different layouts for the page. But is that something we should automatically do? I think not. At least not without considering these two points:
How close are the breakpoints?
We have 2 that are 20 pixels apart (1170px and 1190px); should we set both of them or should we drop one? I think that above 900px, chances are that desktop users may easily trigger a re-flow in that range, so I would not implement both. In other words, I think it's okay to go with close breakpoints if the values are below 800px — as there is less chance to confuse users when they resize their browser window.
Should we try to create as many columns as we can?
Bringing more ads above the fold may make more sense than bringing up a list of links that you'd generally keep buried in your footer. Also, you may choose to give more breathing room to your main content before bringing up boxes that the user does not really care for.

Getting Ready for Media Queries

For the purpose of this article, we'll use every single one of our breakpoints to create a new layout, which should also demonstrate that it is not necessarily a good idea.

For the 530px and 700px breakpoints, there is a design choice to make. Without a max-width, we'd get everything flush, but the main box (#main) would be larger than the maximum width we originally set.

Conclusion

Not once in this article I referenced the width of a device, be it an iPad, a Xoom, or something else. Building a "content-aware grid" is a simple matter of choosing the "layout patterns" that you want, based on breakpoints that you set according to page content.
After I sent this piece to Smashing Magazine, I ran into Smashing Magazine Feed]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/responsive-web-design/feed/0A Day in the Internethttp://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/day-internet/
http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/day-internet/#commentsFri, 16 Mar 2012 20:38:01 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=4110
The general job description of a graphic designer is a pretty vast platform. Wherever there is a logo, letterhead, brochure, layout to be made or any other design project for either the online or print, you will surely find a graphic artist behind it. There is basically a large domain in which designers can develop [...]
No related posts.]]>
The general job description of a graphic designer is a pretty vast platform. Wherever there is a logo, letterhead, brochure, layout to be made or any other design project for either the online or print, you will surely find a graphic artist behind it. There is basically a large domain in which designers can develop their business, which is great because this offers them multiple choices and they can truly do something that they enjoy.
On the other hand, this also means that they have to be proficient in several more specific domains. Depending on the clients’ demands, they have to be able to dabble in all sorts of related fields, like Copywriting for example.
As a graphic designer, you have to know how to make use of specific demographics to establish your target audience and then be able to make your work pleasing. You are in charge of presenting your preliminary draft and doing so visually, orally or in writing; you are also the one who accomplishes the final version of the project on complex computer software. And everything from your surroundings can qualify as design inspiration, but let’s face it: we all turn to the Almighty Internet to provide us reliable pieces of information and fast.
This being said, how much do you really rely each day on the Internet in your work as a graphic designer?
Fortunately, graphic designers do not depend solely on the Internet. They do however need it to gather various design resources for their personal collection and for establishing efficient communication with clients and other relevant people in the business.
This graphic will actually reveal to us how much people all over the globe rely on the Internet every day. There are some pretty impressive statistics there, huh?
Have you thought about the number of hours you spend on the Internet each day?
Pixel 77]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/day-internet/feed/015 Examples of WebGL Google Chrome Experimentshttp://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/15-examples-webgl-google-chrome-experiments/
http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/15-examples-webgl-google-chrome-experiments/#commentsSun, 11 Mar 2012 14:38:53 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=4016
Internet faces lots of changes in versions, in styling and in formats with the passing course of time. Many evolutions are responsible for this change in the field of web designing. Introduction of WebGL (Google Chrome) is one such element in this zone. It can be referred as a framework of the canvas HTML element [...]
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Internet faces lots of changes in versions, in styling and in formats with the passing course of time. Many evolutions are responsible for this change in the field of web designing. Introduction of WebGL (Google Chrome) is one such element in this zone. It can be referred as a framework of the canvas HTML element that gives a 3D graphics API applied in a web browser and the use of plugins is not mandatory in this case. This web based graphic language is a very effective tool in using the JavaScript to implement the use of 3D graphics within the browser.
WebGL or Web-based Graphic Library is another widely used technology that web designers apply in the project of web development. In order to generate interactive 3D graphic, which is irrespective to any kind of browser this technology is often used by the designers and developers as well. However, sometime visitors have complained that this technique is not clearly seen or understood in their computer. That is unfortunate indeed, but at the same time this technology can change the whole conception of web browsing as well.
However, there are lots of examples in the internet on the proper use of such language in making a website more attractive. WebGL experiments are widely spread in the business of web site designing and developing since web designers and developers find it very effective for their project and at the same time it is very user friendly as well. In order to create several types of 3D effects in a website, web designers take the help of WebGL (Google Chrome). After using it they get success in their projects. This amazing WebGL technology can be used for different kind of purposes in websites; be it simple use in websites with 3D graphics or something more complicated like gaming or movie simulation.
Many web designers consider this WebGL technology as a future of gaming platform. With the stunning feature of WebGL technique websites can achieve a unique look. Moreover, people can find websites with some brilliant 3D effects. One can find plenty of examples of such WebGL experiments (Google Chrome) in the internet from which you can get a clear idea how this technology is changing the meaning of 3D graphics in the zone of website designing and development. The novice web designers can get good idea about using such technology in their upcoming or ongoing designing task. So search on the internet to get some brilliant examples of WebGL experiments.

DesignM.ag]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/web-design/32-clean-amp-minimal-websites/feed/0Blacklist IP Addresses With htaccesshttp://www.designerbooster.com/featured/blacklist-ip-addresses-htaccess/
http://www.designerbooster.com/featured/blacklist-ip-addresses-htaccess/#commentsMon, 05 Mar 2012 14:37:22 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=3919
If you have a WordPress site you could get a lot of spam comments, it can take up a lot of time of your day to go through and delete these spam comments. There are a few plugins you can use to delete these spam comments for you or you can use htaccess to block [...]
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If you have a Wordpress site you could get a lot of spam comments, it can take up a lot of time of your day to go through and delete these spam comments. There are a few plugins you can use to delete these spam comments for you or you can use htaccess to block the spammers from even getting to your site.
Here is a good snippet to add to your htaccess file to completely block spammers from your site.
If you have a WordPress site you could get a lot of spam comments, it can take up a lot of time of your day to go through and delete these spam comments. There are a few plugins you can use to delete these spam comments for you or you can use htaccess to block the spammers from even getting to your site.
On the WordPress comment page it will record the IP Address, if you know this user is a spammer you can copy the IP Address into your htaccess to block them from ever coming back.
Copy and paste the following and replace with the IP address you want to the deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.x.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

<Limit GET POST PUT>

order allow, deny

allow from all

deny from 123.123.123.1

deny from 555.555.555.5

deny from 000.000.000.0

</Limit>

Queness]]>http://www.designerbooster.com/featured/blacklist-ip-addresses-htaccess/feed/0Is Paypal Good for Your Online Business?http://www.designerbooster.com/featured/paypal-good-online-business/
http://www.designerbooster.com/featured/paypal-good-online-business/#commentsWed, 29 Feb 2012 08:38:05 +0000designerboosterhttp://www.designerbooster.com/?p=3821
PayPal is definitely the most well-known online user payment service in the world. With its start somewhere in 2000 thanks to X.com and Confinity merging, PayPal quickly became a leader of the market and expanded very fast among eBay users. That is probably why PayPal was bought by eBay in 2002 for just under $ [...]
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PayPal is definitely the most well-known online user payment service in the world. With its start somewhere in 2000 thanks to X.com and Confinity merging, PayPal quickly became a leader of the market and expanded very fast among eBay users. That is probably why PayPal was bought by eBay in 2002 for just under $ 1.5 billion.
But PayPal means much more than that today. Tens of millions of users tend to pay with PayPal faster than with their credit card. The company functions as an acquirer and processes payments for online vendors, auction sites and many commercial users – all these for a small usage fee. With such a reputation to handle, we might surely ask ourselves how likely it is for PayPal to be the best payment processor for our online services. If you own a design agency, I am sure you have thought of this at least once.
Today we will put in balance the negative and positive sides of using PayPal for a business and we will try to come to a conclusion by the end. I look also forward to hearing your opinions about the great service PayPal is, but let’s wait for that until the end.

What is PayPal NOT?

Well, although it seems like one, PayPal is definitely not a bank. It offers the basic services of a bank, but is has not been classified as one, although it is under rules and regulations which govern a financial institution in the USA. A bank usually uses people’s deposits for its own purposes, while PayPal does not. They only store the deposits in their accounts and do not redistribute any of it. Although PayPal is not considered a bank in the US, it has been regulated just like one by the CSSF in Europe.
In order to be able to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of PayPal, it would be a good idea for me to tell you some quick facts about it:

PayPal has more than 230 million accounts registered and allows customers to send, hold and receive money in 190 countries in the world. PayPal features support for 24 different currencies.

PayPal allows people to start their own businesses and work as a third-party service in the transactions they make.

There is a specific limit of money a user can receive per year. If you want to have an unlimited account, you will need to provide personal information and verify the account.

PayPal has a service called Students’ Account, which permitted parents to give students money on a debit card.

The good

PayPal has some clear advantages over any competitor on the market. First, it is very easy to set up and is very elegant. It doesn’t take more than few minutes to set up an online shop with support for PayPal. The “add to cart” and “view cart” buttons can even be customized by the designers themselves. The service is also very easy to use and the payments very easy to execute. There is no doubt about the fact that paying with PayPal could not be easier. Moreover, there is no setup or monthly fee.
Let’s face it, one of the most important assets of PayPal is its brand and name recognition. Being a company with excess of $ 2.2 billion in annual sales revenues, PayPal is no doubt the star player of the market. Although people are still reluctant to pay on the internet, they definitely trust PayPal the most if needed to process money online. Moreover, because it functions as a third-party service, PayPal makes sure the customer’s credit card and bank account number do not get in the stores’ databases. Security is extremely important and PayPal seems to take care of it as well as possible.
While many other services sustain themselves by asking for monthly or yearly payments, PayPal asks for money only from the users who sell. This makes PayPal feel like your friend because when you don’t sell anything, you don’t pay anything. Can it be more convenient?
Image by 401K.
With so many users having a PayPal account, there is a huge potential customer base for everyone who uses PayPal for online selling. A good example is eBay. The majority of the sellers do not offer support for MasterCard or VISA, therefore buyers need to have a PayPal account in order to buy something – and this doesn’t affect eBay at all, because as said before, PayPal has a huge customer base.
While businesses use PayPal for commercial purposes, individuals can also use it for personal purposes. PayPal offers multiple account options and a single person can opt for one of them. Each account option offers different privileges and have different rules. There is no fee for transactions between two PayPal users with a personal account for example.
The fact that PayPal offers support in so many countries is another strong asset. Giving the option to use 24 currencies and handle international payments is something not many other services can do. Another impressive feature is the option to pay through credit and debit cards directly, which means the transaction fee is also minimal, set at 3.9 percent for any amount up to $ 100,000.
If you thought this is all, you are in for another surprise. Although it is not a bank, PayPal works as a great accountant. You can see every payment, withdrawal, every inbound transaction – all these with a single click. It is very easy to find every transactions in the history panel and you can even download a spreadsheet file with details for a period longer than one year. Printing is not a problem for PayPal either.
As mentioned before, PayPal is an eBay service, therefore buying from the American online store has never been easier.

The bad

As any other service, PayPal has its own disadvantages too. One of them might be the fees charged for non-PayPal payments. Although PayPal claims they help small sellers, the hidden fees show no signs of it. The fees might be from 1.9 to 2.9 percent plus $ 0.30 per transaction – this can get very costly. Some of PayPal’s rules are also very strict due to different regulations. The slightest suspicion about your account might get it suspended and it takes a long time for PayPal to investigate and reopen your account. You might find yourself with your money locked for longer periods than expected.
Talking about customer service, maybe the worst thing about PayPal is the difficulty to solve issues and investigate cases. There have been many issues over time with trying to contact customer service. Even when you manage to get a hold of them, sometimes it just seems there is no one at the end of the line and some emails only get automated responses. There have also been reports of accounts being automatically charged without the knowledge of the user.

Image by protohiro.
There is not even the chance of a third-party jury. When being investigated by PayPal, your account and funds get frozen and the only thing you can do is wait. There is no documentation provided to the user and it doesn’t seem like PayPal puts much consideration into resolving peoples issues.
The verification process is also a hassle. Users have to provide several important pieces of private information such as bills, bank account numbers, social security numbers, address proof and so on. Some users might not even be comfortable with offering such information, but they have to in order for PayPal to lift the funds receiving limit.
Although most eBay sellers have to use PayPal, it seems the protection for them is not excellent. There have been reports of funds refunded to the customer even after the seller has shipped the item! This can become a deal breaker especially when the customer service is not as good as it should be.

Who else?

If for some reason you just don’t want to go with PayPal, then there are some other alternatives out there, although none of them is really that impressive. Google Checkout is an alternative, although it is still an inferior product. The main difference is that Google’s service charges fees depending on the sales volume, while PayPal does not. Checkout also offers fewer features than eBay’s service.
A second one could be MoneyBookers, a very well-known British-based service. They have a customer base of around 10 million accounts, although we do not know yet how many of them are active. They offer services to everybody with an email address and they have a flat fee per transaction.
Besides Google Checkout and MoneyBookers, there is not much else worth mentioning. The other few alternatives, Amazon Payments, OboPay and Paymate are really small and, when people deal with their money, they are not willing to work with companies without a powerful brand.

Bottom line

PayPal is obviously not the perfect solution for buyers and sellers, however it is definitely the best one available right now. They lack support, true, but it’s the most secure online payment service and the one offering the most features. Although PayPal seems best suited for medium-sized businesses, there are not many alternatives out there.
If we look at it from the buyers’ perspective, then there is definitely no better alternative out there. Let’s face it, every service has its own problems; it is just a matter of finding the one with the least of them.
Until next time… what do you think about PayPal? Did you ever have problems with it as a seller/buyer? What is your experience with their customer support and how long did it take for your case to be investigated?
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